(1992). The prisoner's dilemma and educational provision: A reply to Ruth Jonathan. British Journal of Educational Studies: Vol. 40, No. 2, pp. 118-133.

This essay took one of the “externalities” of education, equality of opportunity, and suggested that the more extensive state intervention argued for by “the left” was not needed for its provision. This was argued by saying that what “the left” wanted from equality of opportunity was not equality as such, but merely “adequate resources” for all. An “adequate” education it was suggested, could be provided without extensive state intervention for the great majority of children. Only for those children who were (...) too poor, or whose parents were too irresponsible, would it be necessary for the state to intervene to ensure the provision of education, and then only to ensure that these children had access to sufficient funds to enable them to share in the educational experiences provided for other children. Several details in this argument need to be worked out in more detail, including the important matter of exactly what an “adequate education” might comprise. However, if these details could be worked out satisfactorily, the argument could serve to challenge the left's anxieties about moves towards a market in educational provision. The argument suggests that such moves need not lead to the sacrifice of those externalities which “the left” holds dear. (shrink)

This 1987 book offers a critique of the liberal theory of the state, focusing on a detailed study of cooperation in the absence of the state and of other kinds of coercion. The discussion includes an analysis of collective action and of the Prisoners' Dilemma supergame. It is a revised and expanded edition of the author's classic work of rational choice theory Anarchy and Cooperation, originally published with John Wiley in 1976. The analysis has been recast and developed here to (...) make it more accessible to non-mathematical readers and to provide a more comprehensive and self-contained treatment of the theory of collective action. The book will be of interest to a range of readers in political and social philosophy and in economics. (shrink)